Silas Butts’ school finds new home at state museum
The small Brasstown community school that Oconee farmer Silas Butts ran in the early 20th century has found a new home at a place which is committed to preserving South Carolina Agricultural heritage. The school house has been moved and re-built on the grounds of the Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum of South Carolina, according to a descendant and authority on Silas Butts’ history. Butts was a true Oconee County legend who took in children in what today would approximate foster care. Back then Silas Butts, a mountain man, hawked the crops grown on his farm and, at times, the moonshine that was made on the property. The grandfather of Seneca resident Jerry Alexander was a brother to Butts. And today Alexander is considered an authority on Silas Butts, as well as a chronicler of events from the past of both Oconee and Pickens counties. Butts died of a heart attack in 1956, but the tales from his colorful past have lived on into the 21st century.